As is known in the art, communication networks are becoming increasingly complex. Locating networks objects having performance problems and failures may be relatively difficult. A system administrator may need to obtain an intimate working knowledge of the network topology, components, and operating parameters to even make a guess at a potential problem in the network. In addition, a network problem may not be a component failure but rather a device that is overloaded periodically or from time to time. Further, an administrator responsible for allocating network resources may find it quite difficult to correctly estimate the impact of moving various network devices from one location to another.
While there are known applications that show performance data, configuration information, which facilitates an understanding of the object relationships and their contribution to the problem, is not shown. Additionally, finding configuration information requires a user to piece together information from a logical map view and then switch to a view with physical connections. This requires a user to mentally combine the information in the two views, which may be quite difficult for complex networks with a variety of components, to determine the probable location of a problem. In addition, known systems may not collect object performance information with sufficient granularity to help a user identify intermittent bottlenecks or problems.